Monday, July 4, 2016

I have been wanting a new lap quilt for my family room chair, to snuggle up in during the winter time. The hardest part is what pattern for the quilt, what fabric color choices and such! Wouldn't you agree?

After much thought.... I decided to use this fabric line from Maywood Studios, this line is called Serenity, and then, I choose the bright Magenta Fabric also by Maywood Studios called Catalina for a extra pop and contrast for this quilt. As we proceed you will see why I chose the bright magenta color.

So for my project I decided to make the Jelly Roll Race 2 Quilt Pattern. After looking at all the Jelly Roll Race Quilt images that I found online, I had found these quilts sewn together with a straight seam combining the strips, and with a 45 degree seam, and then by adding a two inch square between the strips and even found some with triangles between the strips. I decided to use the 2 inch square between the strips for my quilt.

NOTE: All measurements I used a 1/4″ seam allowance.

As you can see in the picture, when I opened the Jelly Roll, I unfolded it and just started taking each strip from the pile as it laid there on the sewing table, from the top of the pile until I got to the last strip, just letting the strips fall where they may in the quilt.

Sew all of your strips together into one super long mega strip, make sure you add a 2 1/2 inch square between each strip, (this is approximately 1600 inches long), sew right sides together.

IMPORTANT : After all strips are sewn together cut off 18″ off just one end of the mega strip. This is very important... this offsets the seams and and in my case the bright magenta squares... Just be sure to do it on only one end of the mega strip!

Take both ends of this mega strip, put right sides of the fabric together and then sew them together along the edge with 1/4 inch seam. When you get to the end, you will have to cut open the folded edge so your new double strip will lay open flat. You now have a two row strip that is approximately 800 inches long.

Repeat... Grab the two ends with the two rows, right sides together, sew along one edge until you hit the end, and cut open the folded edge. You should now have a strip that is 4 rows and approximately 400 inches long.

Repeat... Grab the two ends with the four rows, right sides together, sew along one edge until you hit the end, and cut open the folded edge. You should now have a strip (that is not really a strip any more) that is 8 rows and approximately 200 inches long.

Repeat... Grab the two ends with the eight rows, right sides together, sew along one edge until you hit the end, and cut open the folded edge. You should now have a strip (that is definitely not a strip any more) that is 16 rows and approximately 100 inches long.

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Repeat... Grab the two ends with the sixteen rows, right sides together, sew along one edge until you hit the end, and cut open the folded edge. You should now have a quilt top that is 32 rows and approximately 50 inches long.

Here... I have laid out the quilt top on the my queen bed ( approximately 50 X 60 ).

This is a side shot of the quilt top and this one below is kinda sideways, with the top of the bed and bottom on the end of the bed, if that makes sense : )

Much better picture here... below!

In these two pictures, you can see that there is two vivid brown rows right in the middle... They are working on me... I might have to do some jelly roll quilt surgery! If, I do... I will take out two rows and flip them, (one of the brown rows in question and one of the rows above or below the brown row).

The standard Jelly Roll Race Quilt, really only works for a throw quilt, like is laying on the top of the queen bed above, or a full sized bed if you add a border around the edge of the quilt. If you want a different size quilt you have to make some adjustments. As I was looking at images of jelly roll race quilts... I found a site that I must share with you... If you are wondering how do I change the size to a twin, queen or kings size quilt.

Thanks so much to Michelle @WeeFolkArt.com, she has taken the guess work out of changing the quilt size and determining the number of strips. Her site is a must see... if you want a different size other than a throw (50"X 60") size, as I have shown how you make here.

Jelly Roll Surgery accomplished..... Here are the results below.

Okay.... I did switch up the two dark brown rows in the middle of the quilt that was bothering me. So,

I took the bottom brown and the lighter row just below it out and then flipped the two strips and sewed it all back together again. It really was fine the way it was before, this was just a personal preference of mine to switch it. To me the two dark brown strips together, seemed to draw your eye to them and I really wanted your eye to be drawn elsewhere in the quilt as you will see soon.

I chose this fabric because it is very soothing to the eye, hence it's name Serenity, and the colors just blend so well with my family room decor. Another reason I chose this fabric line, is because of its flowery and leafy designs on each of the fabrics in this line. This is just what I needed for the overall finished look for the quilt I was trying to achieve. Now my twist to this quilt is that I wanted to machine embroidery hummingbirds around the pops or splashes of magenta fabric squares that are in this quilt top. I went through all my hummingbird embroidery designs and picked a few for the quilt. Then I arranged and pinned on the quilt top in the areas I wanted them them to appear on the quilt.

Now the fun really begins, embroidering all these little jewels onto the quilt top.... I'm sure glad this can be done by machine now and not the old fashioned way!

Gracie helping Nana with her Precious Jewel Quilt!

Finished embroidering all the precious jewels (hummingbirds) on quilt top.

Border added to the quilt top, now we're ready for next step, the batting and backing. But first, I will show you the matching french seamed pillowcase that I made for a traveling companion. The traveling companion is a down feather pillow (12 X 16), and the pillowcase that I made measures about 13.5" X 19.5". I used the Me and My Sisters Designs - Free Dilly Dally Standard Pillowcase Pattern and Tutorial for pillowcases to match the quilt that I made for my granddaughter.

A standard pillow measures 20" X 26," a queen pillow measures 20" X 28" and a king pillowcase measures 20" X 36". So, If your good at math you can calculate what size you would need for the other pillow sizes... I did however, calculate the measurements that I needed for the little 12" X 16" down feather pillow. They also have a you-tube video showing how to make the dilly dally pillowcase if you would like to use that instead. I just love French seams!

For this smaller sized 12" X 16" pillow.... I used 3 different fabrics that were in the quilt throw, to have a complimenting pillowcase to match.

Here are the fabric measurements that I used for the 12"x16" pillow.

Pillowcase body - 14.5" X 18" piece of fabric - darker brown mums

Pillowcase cuff - 7.5" X 18" piece of fabric - lighter brown bubbles

Pillowcase trim - 2.5" X 18" piece of fabric - magenta flowers

For the back of this lap quilt, I decided to use Soft and Comfy Fleece, it's a champagne color and it blends beautifully with the overall color palette. I have never worked with this type of fabric before and I'm sure there will be some learning curves.

I pressed this quilt top with some starch to get all the wrinkles out and give it some tauntness.

Then... I laid out my quilt top, on top of a piece batting that I had placed on the floor for a buffer, so my project wouldn't slip and slid on the wood floor, with the right side/or print side down on top of a piece of batting, that I had placed on the floor.... just so the quilt top wouldn't slip and slide, since my project was so thin.

I did not use batting in this quilt, I just used the batting as a buffer between the floor and my project, so my project wouldn't slip and slid on the wood floor.

Then... I laid the fleece down on top of the quilt top with right side/or fuzzy side up.

Next... I folded one side of the fleece back on itself about halfway, then I took the 505 temporary adhesive fabric spray and sprayed a 12 inch section across that part of the quilt top and started working the fleece down to the quilt top, making sure there is no wrinkles as I was adhering the quilt top to the fleece back.

Once that section was in place, then moving down to the next 12 inch section, and so on until that half of the quilt is finished.

After finishing one side of the quilt, I moved to the other and repeated this process to finish that side of the quilt.

The next step was to attach the quilt top to the fleece backing permanatly by stitching in the ditch on each row to accomplish this. I choose to finish this quilt with the stitch in the ditch, (as shown in the picture below) as not to take away from the beauty of these colors, the desgns of the fabric and the machine embroideried hummingbirds.

This was a fun project to do and my little helper was happy to help nana with her lap quilt, she loves hummingbirds too!

My next project is to finish my Celtic Plaid Green and Gold Latice Quilt, that I started many years ago... There is a story behind many years ago... I hope to share it soon!

Saturday, July 2, 2016

One of the most beautiful things I've seen in awhile..... was this site that I am sharing with everyone today!

It was Sunday, April 10th..... It had been cloudy and raining off and on all day, here in Southern California. It was about 5:00 - 6:00pm when the clouds were starting to break and the sun was going down and coming through the breaking clouds and look what we were so blessed to see... Such a beautiful part of God's creation right above our heads!

Now.... you know that pictures just don't do true justice to the real thing, but these aren't to bad!

I had tried to take a pano picture with my IPad to get the full rainbow over the barn, but the rainbow was just to big... It was sure an amazing site!

These pictures above really show the double rainbow.

Because the sun was just going down this rainbow was so vibrant in its colors.

I just couldn't decide which were the best... So here ya go you be the judge on which ones you like!

This was just awesome to walk out your back door and see ones of Gods amazing creations.

Grand Passages of Music (Memories of Times Gone By)

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About Me

I was born and raised in Montana. I grew up loving nature, animals, quilting, arts and crafts. I really enjoy, the creative side of things. I guess that’s why my love for crafts has never disappeared only evolved over the years. I enjoy decorating and being inspired by magazines and books. I married my childhood sweetheart and we moved to the California Bay Area, where we lived for many years and raised our family. Then we traveled some and now we are living here in Southern California, where we will stay and enjoy our granddaughter. I was one that stayed home and raised my family, taking in a few extra children to help financially, then after raising my family worked as a Pharmacy Tech for many more years. Now... really just enjoying my grand daughter in her early years. My husband and I are care takers of a small horse ranch here in SoCal.
La Bonne Vie!